


Mourning

by NextTrickAnvils



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Can be interpreted as pre-relationship romantic or platonic, Female!Byleth, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Spoilers for Chapter 15 of Verdant Wind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 03:48:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20557736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NextTrickAnvils/pseuds/NextTrickAnvils
Summary: Teach had been quiet since they all returned from Ailell. Oh sure she wasn’t really the most chatty person around and it wasn’t like she ignored everyone. But something still felt off to Claude.(Byleth mourns a lost friend from another house and Claude is there for her)





	Mourning

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by me dealing with my emotions over having to kill Ashe in Chapter Fifteen of the Golden Deer Route.
> 
> I admit I only got Rank C of his support and I didn't plan on recruiting him but I still liked talking to him and I even played the Paralogue with him and Catherine so finding him with the enemy forces and not even having a chance to talk to him, even if it would be futile, kind of hurt.
> 
> (By the way as of this writing I've only just finished Chapter Seventeen so please refrain from any spoilers past that point)

Teach had been quiet since they all returned from Ailell.

Oh sure she wasn’t really the most chatty person around and it wasn’t like she ignored everyone. But something still felt off to Claude.

It almost reminded him of when…

…Of when Jeralt was killed.

They did lose a few good men and women in the last fight, some weren’t even killed by the enemies but the fire surrounding them.

It made sense that she’d be mourning the loss of their soldiers… except it didn’t.

They lost soldiers before, they’ve lost civilians but he’d never seen her like this with the exception of Jeralt’s death.

He tried to ask what was wrong but all she said was something about “having a lot on her mind.”

“You know if you ever wanna talk Teach…”

“I know… thank you Claude.”

A few days passed by with training, talking with Lorenz about the bridge plan, and organizing all the supplies that Judith and her soldiers brought.

He was going through the battle plan in his head when he spotted Teach walking by with something in her arms.

Some would call it nosiness but Claude preferred to call it a “curious nature” and it was because of that “curious nature” that he quietly followed her.

Claude didn’t really have an idea for where she would end up and yet he still found himself a little confused when she stepped inside one of the dorm rooms.

He stops just outside the door and takes in the room, the blue rug showing that this room once belonged to someone from the Blue Lions. There were books scattered throughout the room and he noticed a bow in the corner with some tools for upkeep.

Then there was Teach herself, her back facing Claude, and it looked like she was placing down whatever she was carrying.

“…Teach?”

She lets out a startled sound and quickly turns around.

“O-oh, Claude. W-what are you doing here?”

“I believe that’s my line. What’s going on, Teach?”

He glances behind her and finally sees what she had been carrying around.

A book with the title, “Loog and the Maiden of Wind” written on its spine and a handful of violets tied together with a blue ribbon. There was something about the book and the violets that rang a bell in Claude’s mind but he couldn’t immediately put it together.

Teach looked upset and turned back around.

“Teach…”

“Ashe…”

“Huh?”

“This is… was Ashe’s room.”

Ashe… Ashe… Ashe Ubert? What did he…? It was then that it all finally came together in Claude’s mind.

Ashe was one of the soldiers of House Rowe… Teach apparently tried to talk him out of fighting against them but he refused to listen. Lorenz had to take him down before he had the chance to kill her.

“Did you know him well?” Claude asked as he approached her

“…Compared to everyone in the Golden Deer, we weren’t that close. But I liked talking to him and we even fought together once. During a shopping trip he told me how _Loog and the Maiden of Wind_ was what got him into reading as a kid. He loved violets, I’d always give him some whenever they bloomed in the greenhouse.”

Claude could see tears forming in his professor’s eyes. Teach took a deep breath before she continued.

“I guess… it only now occurred to me just how much things had changed since I was gone. A-and I…”

“…Go ahead, let it out.”

“…Ashe isn’t going to be the last one is he? We’re going to find more former students and… I… I don’t know if I’ll be ready for that. It’s not like with Edelgard. I had time to take in that information and time to steel myself. Ashe being at Ailell took me by surprise. And now I’m scared… who else am I going to have strike down? Mercedes? Annette? Caspar? Bernadetta?”

He wasn’t sure what to do or say in response. Honestly Claude would be lying if he said he hadn’t thought of that. Everyone had at least one friend from the other two houses. 

It wasn’t a thought he liked lingering on.

The two stood in silence in front of Teach’s little makeshift memorial before finally Claude took her hand and squeezed it.

“I don’t know if saying this will help but… I don’t know what’s gonna happen in the future… if we’re gonna have to fight against more old friends… but I can tell you this: no matter what happens, the Golden Deer will always be by your side.. I’ll always be by your side.”

She didn’t say anything but Claude could see a small smile on her face and could feel her squeezing his hand back.

**Author's Note:**

> Ya'll can find me (and my liveblogging of my decent into Three Houses Hell) on tumblr @ https://nexttrickanvils.tumblr.com/ and twitter @ https://twitter.com/NextTrickAnvils


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